POSITIVE SCHOOL (sociological explanation)
In criminology, the positivist school has attempted to find scientific objectivity for the measurement and quantification of criminal behavior. As the scientific method became the major paradigm in the search for knowledge, the classical school’s social philosophy was replaced by the quest for scientific laws that would be discovered by experts. It is divided into biological, psychological and social.
Social positivism: In general terms, positivism rejected the classical Theory’s reliance on free will and sought to identify positive causes that determined the propensity for criminal behavior. Rather than biological and psychological cause, this branch of the school identifies “society” as the cause. Hence environmental criminology and other sub school study the spatial distribution of crimes and offenders. Meanwhile, Emile Durkheim identified society as a social phenomenon. External to individuals, with crime a normal part of a healthy society. Deviancy was nothing more than “boundary setting”, pushing to determine the current limit of morality and acceptability.
Positivist theory: The primary idea behind positivist criminology is that criminals are born as such and not made into criminal; in other words, it is nature of the person, not nurture, that result in criminal propensities. Moreover, the positive criminologist does not usually examine the role of free will in criminal activity.
Variations of positivist criminology: Today there are three major versions of positivist criminology: biological, psychological and sociological.
• Biological positivism locates the causes of crime within the individual’s physical makeup;
• Psychological positivism suggests the causes are in faulty personality development;
• Sociological positivism stresses certain social factors within one’s environment or surrounding culture and social structure.

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